Gluten-Free Menu Swap-Light & Easy for Summer

I’m sure everyone knows who Stephanie O’Dea is and if you read my weekly menu plans, you are familiar with her slow cooker books and her blog. I’m a big fan of Stephanie’s approach of ‘let’s get this job done and get to the fun’ parenting style and her new book tackles household chores and menu planning with a streamlined, get it done and get on with life attitude. I have tried all kinds of organizing systems and all sizes and shapes of planners and even tried using my iPhone to organize my life. The planners are too big or too small or the spaces don’t accommodate my messy handwriting. The systems are too detailed and fussy and I last a few weeks before abandoning them.

I’ve been reading through Stephanie’s new Totally Together Journal that she kindly sent to me to review and the plan is to the point, get the most important and critical jobs done and then remember to schedule family time and fun too. The menu plan template and sample menus are practical and the charts are clean, clear and not too fussy. The Weekly journal pages with chore reminders are just what I need as I forget things like car washing until I’m embarrassed to be seen in the mom mobile. For young families there are regular chores and housekeeping habits that will work for your kids for a lifetime and help take the chore wars and squabbles out of who does what, but also work for couples with older teens who need reminders. I think the perfect gift for new parents would be all three of Stephanie’s new books to get a new family off to great start.

Meal planning, even when I color outside the menu has been the one source of sanity in our busy lives and I love how Stephanie incorporates that into her journal. This week, Renee of Beyond Rice and Tofu is hosting our swap with the theme of ‘light and easy for summer.’ The temperatures are going to be 90 plus all week and we will need some light and easy around here. I’m actually thinking I will make cool vegetable salads before work in the morning to have when I get home after a long day in the and out of the heat.

• Salmon with stir fry veggies.
• Asian cucumber and carrot salad topped with leftover salmon and a light rice wine vinegar, sesame dressing.
• Chicken quesadillas for the guys and chicken topped salad for mom and stir fry for the paleo girl all from pre-grilled chicken.
• Zucchini pasta with my new spiral slicer and wouldn’t you know-Heidi has a link to a Gluten-Free Goddess recipe and tutorial on her menu plan for the week.
• Diane’s Muffaletta Burgers, grilled veggies.
• Omelets stuffed with leftover grilled veggies and leftover salad.

Visit Renee for the rest of our swap and Laura at Organizing Junkie for hundreds of menu ideas on Menu Plan Monday. Laura if off this week and the Menu Plan Monday Swap is at Finding Joy in My Kitchen.